Cambalache

The world has always been a mess, I know that,
In the 506 and in 2000 too;
There have always been crooks, schemers, and hustlers,
Happy and bitter, values and fake.
But the twentieth century is a display
Of brazen evil, no one can deny it,
We’re all tangled up in a mess
And in the same mud, we’re all groped.

Today it turns out it’s the same to be honest or a traitor,
Ignorant, wise, thief, generous, con artist.
Everything’s the same, nothing’s better,
A donkey is just like a great professor!
There are no dropouts or ranks,
The immoral have leveled us all...

If one lives in deceit
And another steals in ambition,
It’s all the same if you’re a priest,
A mattress maker, king of clubs,
A con artist or a stowaway.

What a lack of respect, what an assault on reason!
Anyone can be a gentleman, anyone can be a thief!
Mixed in with Stavisky are Don Bosco and La Mignon,
Don Chicho and Napoleon, Carnera and San Martín.
Just like in the disrespectful display
Of the jumble, life has mixed in,
And wounded by a blunt saber
You see the Bible crying against a water heater.

Twentieth century, jumble, problematic and feverish,
He who doesn’t cry doesn’t eat, and he who doesn’t steal is a fool.
Just go for it, let’s roll,
Because we’ll meet in the oven!
Don’t think anymore, throw yourself aside,
No one cares if you were born honest!
It’s the same for the one who works
Night and day like an ox
As for the one who lives off the mines,
The one who kills or the one who heals
Or is outside the law.